Did you see this???

Hi everyone.  Hope you're enjoying the holiday weekend.  We've had temps in the 30's at night and very cold days but it's warming up a little.  We will be 90 by week's end. 

 

 

I was doing an online search for something (I can't remember what), when I spotted this.  Holy crap.

Immediately went to EBay and bought one.  Can't wait!  I had a subscription from the very beginning until I started caring for parents and quit stitching.  But when I saw this bag I was smitten and that hasn't happened since my last fried donut.  This morning.

 

 

 

 

I'm still completely exhausted, like I've never felt before, and have been working on the drywall.  The ceiling patch was not good and rather than wait for him to return, I've removed his work and am redoing it myself but it's a very very small area. 

 

 

Not much work on Eliza because I forgot about the next pear!  As usual, I came up with several options and wasted time.  It's free, everyone is tired of them,  pick the easiest one!  So I did and will stitch it tonight.  Here's Eliza's progress once again.

 

 

 And I wanted to tell you how touched I was that Denise emailed a photo of my free chart (here).  Dealing with the heartache of losing their parents, she stitched it for her sister who found it comforting to acknowledge them in this way.  The angel was added from her mom's jewelry box.  Thank you Denise for sharing this with me.  I told her that this is how I felt after our parents passed, along with our much loved Lab.  We may look OK on the exterior, but the grief is within.

 

Thanks for visiting - stay safe and enjoy the holiday.

Remember those that made the ultimate selfless sacrifice.

 

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Never forget....

those lives lost in bravery and courage, conviction and virtue, duty and honor, to preserve the freedom and safety of the land they loved.

The number of American soldiers buried in foreign lands is much higher than I expected to find.

  WWI - 30,912 with 4,452 missing. 

 

 Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in France, most from WWI, total of 14,246.

 

The foreign burials from WWII are a staggering 93,202 with 55,851 missing. 

 

Lorraine American WWII Cemetery and Memorial in France, 10,489.

 

 Information needed to find a family member killed and buried in a foreign land can be found on this site and by name here  Another resource is here. 

This is the list of foreign cemeteries where tens of thousands of American soldiers rest.

 Aisne-Marne, France
Ardennes, Belgium
Brittany, France
Brookwood, England
Cambridge, England
Corozal, Panama
Epinal, France
Flanders Field, Belgium
Florence, Italy
Henri-Chapelle, Belgium
Lorraine, France
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Manila, Philippines
Meuse-Argonne, France
Mexico City, Mexico
Netherlands, Netherlands
Normandy, France
North Africa, Tunisia
Oise-Aisne, France
Rhone, France
Sicily-Rome, Italy
Somme, France
St. Mihiel, France
Suresnes, France

Click on any of the above to view a video of the grounds and information, or go to the website of the American Battle Monuments Commission,

 which is where I obtained the listing.

  Do you know that there are many cremated remains of veterans that were never claimed? They are sitting in beat up containers on shelves in mortuaries across the country. An article about a local cemetery preparing to care for some of the unclaimed remains brought this to my attention. How sad is this, that no family members came forward to respectfully bury these young souls. If you would like to know more about this, you can visit the Missing in America Project website.

 

Enjoy your freedom this weekend.

I've been working on the railroad

Greetings to all.  Prayers for Oklahoma.  I've mentioned before that we were 1/4 mile from the F5 that came through Wheatland PA in 1985, and took our best friend.  Seeing such destruction is mind numbing, and hard to comprehend.

I received an email from Beth, the stitcher responsible for the perfection in Kathy Barrick's post.  She mentioned railroading, a term I remember from my early stitching days.  After checking a few online sources, I thought I'd give it a try once again.  My sis in law used a laying tool to smooth her threads, and she was kind enough to gift one, which I considered a direct hint.  She was a top notch stitcher and rolled her eyes a bit at my style.   Using the stabbing method instead of the laying tool is my preference, and I tried it on my messy eyelet stitches. 

 The last one on the right is railroaded.  See the one above with the twisted thread?  This is how many of my regular cross are also.  I usually give the needle a quick twist in hand but it doesn't always work.  Sometimes it comes up through the linen with a bad twist and a laying tool doesn't even help. 

 

This is the stab method I tried on the eyelet.  Instead of the usual down stitch (on the right), 

 

 you lay the floss in front and insert the needle between the two strands before going down.  This prevents the twisting and both threads lay side by side (as a railroad track), which gives better coverage and a full flat stitch.

 The biggest problem I have with this method - I can't see the linen threads and end up in the wrong hole.  So I decided to scrap the idea of better stitches out of fear that frustration will add to my impatience.  Looking at these photos did show me another reason my eyelets are off. 

Take a good look - don't they look like they are all doing a Travolta move?  The top left corners appear to be pointing, don't they?  This is because I am starting the next stitch from that outside edge and it's being pulled from the left.  I guess I should start it from the center eye or a middle stitch rather than a corner.  Another color will fill between them and probably even them out but I should pay attention to that. 

 

Here's the railroad stab on a regular cross stitch.  I may keep practicing and see if it becomes a habit I can handle.  I doubt it, but it's only because of my lack of patience and absence of caring what anything thinks.  It bugs me that my threads are twisted, but not enough to be more careful.  Beth also directed me to this article on correct placement of the first stitch.  I can never remember, but this article used the term, "leaning on the post", and that was all I needed.  Thanks for your help Beth!

Ed left after what we hoped was the final sanding this morning.  For some reason, I am so exhausted I can't even go out for groceries.  This afternoon will be spent on the swing stitching, enjoying the beautiful day.  Eliza is turning out to be a fun stitch with the different dividing bands and bright colors.  I'm so glad I chose her.  In fact, I think my last few projects were some of my favorites.  Which brings up a question I may not be able to answer.  Can you?
What is your absolute favorite piece? 

 

Have a wonderful day and stay safe!

Thanks for visiting.

 

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Two things you don't want to see

First is the cat you allow into your home participating in her favorite pastime. 

Dirt rolling.

The second is finding an impostor in your tray of sunflower seeds.  Yes, the ubiquitous stink bug.

The shower went very well and was really nice.  I cut the lawn with the little mower before leaving and everyone was picking the maples' whirly gigs from my hair, plus those other hangy things.  Hey.  I can't see the back and it's easy to get caught in this mess.  Having it at Pizza Joe's was brilliant!  Everyone likes pizza, there were several varieties, salad, drinks and cake, and a really nice private room perfect for a small party.  When I came home, I planted.  This year I decided on all bright yellow marigolds called Janie and I love the darker yellow.  This nursery had healthy bushy plants, 4 to a pack instead of 3 at our other place.  I'm tired of red geraniums and white petunias every year and like the pop of yellow.  When planting in my wheelbarrow, we have slits cut in the bed and I use heavy landscape fabric to line it.  Folding and stapling the corners makes it deeper so I can add more dirt and hold it all in.  Mulch and moss cover the edges when done.

I just love the Black Scallop Ajuga ground cover when it blooms.  They last quite a while.

My guy Ed will be here soon for the final coat of mud.  I wish all of this dust would be a one time deal, but hubby said to do one room at a time.  He knows that when I have too many decisions at once I get confused and it all comes to a halt, so his advice was spot on.

Thanks for all the compliments about my stitches being so nice!  The reason I removed that line of letters and stitched again, is because the rest of the alphabet was the same color for every two letters, and this line's error was each letter being different.  It bugged me. 

Ed's here.  Need to hang the sheets again.

Thanks for visiting - enjoy your Monday.

 

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The letter game

Hey.  How you doing?  We've had wonderful weather here and if I wasn't cleaning every day, I would have been planting flowers.   If I wasn't so tired from cleaning, I may have paid more attention to Eliza's chart.  My final row of rice stitch was  V, W, X, Y, Z.

 

Take a look at the color key.  Notice anything?  Need I say more?   Yes, I removed the entire line and stitched again with the proper colors, but honestly, I kept being drawn back to the symbol matching the letter I was stitching instead of the actual symbol for that letter!  I felt like I was playing one of those trick brain teasers. 

This next border line is a doozy to start but obviously,  any errors on my part won't be noticed.   My eyelet stitches are usually too tense and I'm anxious to see how well I do on the next alphabet.  When I saw the perfect stitches in this March post from Barrick, I felt stitch envy. 

 Some women fear close-ups of their wrinkles, but I fear close-ups of my stitches.  Just regular cross, let alone the specialty.  The threads are not even, sometimes twisted, never uniform.  But that's me, no one looks at my stitchery, and I'm not fussing over it.  It is was it is and I refuse to make it a chore.  To many of you, it's not.  You have a method learned perfectly and many times use only one strand of floss.  My fabric counts require two and even using the secure needle method and giving the needle a twist, I have wonky stitches, so I don't fight it.  When taking my mom anywhere she would always ask "aren't you going to do something with that hair?".  No mom, it is what it is.  Same for my stitching.  I think Eliza is going to be fabulous and can't wait to get further down.

 

I haven't been keeping up with emails and blogs because of everything being covered, so I apologize for that.  I'm also trying to steer clear of Pinterest now that I've finalized the kitchen.  Too many ideas for an indecisive putz.

Enjoy your day - stay safe - thanks for stopping by!

 

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Yellow shoes!

Hi everyone.  Just a quick post to say I'm still plugging away at Eliza, and still in a dust cloud.  He left early today and I have the computer out from the drop cloths.  He finished the drywall and the first coat of mud.  Tomorrow will be the second coat.

In case you're wondering what I'm doing, this was mom's dining room/kitchenette, and there was a wall separating it from her living room where she watched TV.  That area was carpeted and the wood flooring square next to my kitchen entry was her cabinet area for dishes and foods.

 The wall is gone, the wiring from it worked back into the walls, ceiling boxes moved, the carpeting will come up along with the wood, and a new floor running all the way into the kitchen and my family room.  My kitchen plans are completed and sent to the designer.  Mom's been gone for 5 years and that's how long it took me to change this.  I still have her 2 marble top provincial tables and such and will find a good home for them elsewhere.  This area will have a large table and chairs for dining, and a few cupboards.  Her bedroom and bath are off of this room.

 Now for my shoes.  I love red or yellow shoes.  Reasonable and comfortable flats are not easy to find here but I spotted these sling backs at Sears.  The store ordered them for me in my size with free shipping.  They are as comfortable as Bare Traps and look the same, but these are on sale for $24.99 and they're leather.  I love 'em!!!  If you want yellow shoes, they're here.

I'm attending a shower this weekend and it's a good thing I ran into my cousin yesterday.  She insisted it was Sunday at Pizza Joe's party room.  I said (and I know everything) that it is Saturday, at Pizza Hut.  So after my husband shook his head and walked away, I called my sister.  She verified Pizza Hut as the place, and when I said Bonnie is going to Pizza Joe's, she said - yeah, that's right.  No.  You just verified Pizza HUT!  Well that's not what I meant and they're all the same.  No.  They're not.  And is it the 18th?  Yes, she said, Sunday.  NO!!!  The 18th is Saturday, check your calendar and turn the page to the right month!  I wonder what she put on the invitations.  Now I know what my husband goes through.  He always says that you can put all females in a bag, shake them up, and they come out the same.  I say, you can put all males in a bag, shake them up, and they won't know how to get out.

 

Have a great weekend - stay safe - thanks for visiting!

 

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